We report herein the development of a new three-dimensional pharmacophore model for HIV-1 integrase inhibitors which led to the discovery of some 4-[1-(4-fluorobenzyl)-1H-indol-3-yl]-2-hydroxy-4-oxobut-2-enoic acids that are able to specifically inhibit the strand transfer step of integration at nanomolar concentration. The synthesis of the new designed molecules is also described. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.